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Summary List of stories Phase II Night: Ashes, Metal, And Corruption << chapter 58 Chapter 59 of 75 Vinyl, Scratched chapter 60 >> << previous scene Scene 1 of 3 next scene >> Location Participants Time Summary Prologue | Phase I | Phase II | Epilogue 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 Text A week had passed since the incident with Avalon, and Engelhart and Ameliorate were moving out of Ponyville to return to Canterlot, where Engelhart would also resume his duties as a Pegasus Guard. Meadowlark was very quiet now, and very upset over what she saw as all her fault: she had upset her friends, which had led to Avalon getting hurt, which had led to Rainbow Dash beating up her father, which had led to him being examined by a doctor other than Ameliorate, which had finally led to it being discovered he didn't have curled wing syndrome at all. He had been riding a false diagnosis given to him by Ameliorate to allow him to coast along with his job, spending most of his time at home on sick leave instead of serving in the Guard, only maintaining the minimum necessary hours with his 'handicap.' This was clearly something very frowned upon, and part of the reason they had to move back to Canterlot: while Engelhart was being tried by military court, they wanted him to start making up all the time he had missed. And there was quite a lot of it, and he was being demoted all the way back down the ladder to the dirt. So for Meadowlark, life was pointedly miserable right now, made worse by the fact she was forbidden to see her friends. That, and Ameliorate was also in trouble: not just for treating a family member, but for fraud and knowingly giving a false diagnosis. In a funny way, it did go to show how tight the family was: they wanted easy lives, and they gossiped, and thought they were better than everyone, but Ameliorate had done everything in her power to keep Engelhart safe, and Engelhart had still gone in for those minimum hours he needed to do without complaint, wanting to keep his job to continue to help provide for his family instead of getting himself discharged. But now all that had come back to bite them in the flank, and all because parents had told their daughter simply too much, gossiping with her, answering her questions while forgetting to teach her about the feelings of others or what 'empathy' was because 'she was just so curious!' And now Meadowlark was miserable and alone and not even Antares wanted to sneak by to see her one last time, although Rustproof seemed to miss his inattentive babysitter. Antares instead was visiting Avalon every day, bringing her little gifts, trying his best to make her smile and help her feel better. She had suffered a concussion and there were still cuts and bruises all over her body, but Scarlet Sage had thankfully healed the worst of the wounds and treated the rest while a doctor at the clinic had gone over what had happened and prescribed both pain pills and a muscle relaxant for her wings. Avalon would only have one thin, visible scar: a stuttered line just at the outer edge of one eye, from scalp to cheek. It was almost invisible, at least, but it had been deep... the doctor had said it was fortunate she hadn't taken damage to the eye, or she would have lost it. The other damages, even her torn-up wings, hadn't been as bad: nothing else had been broken, even though she had rammed through heavy, inch-thick storm-proofed windows. She was tough. Rainbow Dash had taken a few days to explain things to his daughter, and at the end of it all, she had concluded that Meadowlark was stupid and Rainbow would always be her dad, no matter what. The pale-blue Pegasus spent every night for that week sitting quietly in Avalon's room, watching over her as she went to sleep, wrapped in bandages still and not nearly as energetic as she'd once been... but he knew that would come back. Once she wrapped her head around things, and moreover once her head, wings, and body had all healed. And Rainbow and Applejack both welcomed Antares any time he showed up, and more than once offered to let him sleep over so the boy could stay and help keep watch. But really, Rainbow thought it was selfish: he liked the colt's presence, and he distracted Avalon from the pain of both not being able to fly and from all her cuts and bruises, and... whether Antares knew it or not, he comforted both father and daughter. Luna and Scrivener spent more than a few days themselves at Sweet Apple Acres; they even lent a hoof to the harvesting, so Rainbow could keep his vigil over Avalon and Applejack could be freer to check up on husband and daughter as well as run a few errands into town. Luna thought it counted as good exercise, although halfway through the first day they helped out she all but collapsed into a pile of raked leaves and refused to get up for a good twenty minutes, grumbling the whole time about 'infernal endless orchards of damnable apples.' But thankfully, by now they were almost done with the harvesting: the sun was setting in the sky, but both Big Mac and Soarin' were happy to spend an extra bit of time out in the orchard to finish up the last of the late harvest of these far fields. The next day, they would be able to start preparations for winter... although during winter, they planned to devote as much time as possible to training and helping the Starlit Knights. Scrivener Blooms wondered if the work would ever end, as he turned around and kicked both rear hooves hard into a tree, making it shudder before apples fell from the boughs... and tumbled almost everywhere except the baskets, making him curse under his breath and wonder for the umpteenth time how the hell Applejack and Big Mac managed to do it. Then he winced and stared as an enormous, boulder-sized apple fell out of the tree and landed in front of him with a thud, making the charcoal stallion gape in disbelief. " A wild metaphor appeared!" shouted a voice, and Scrivener groaned before Discombobulation popped out of thin air, jeans and a cloth jacket covering his body, a tiny backpack on his back and a red and white hat on his head. "Go, Scrivener Blooms!" With that, he threw an odd, spherical object forwards that exploded in a burst of light, and Luna appeared in the flash, looking wildly back and forth before she stomped her hooves and yelled in frustration: "What madness is this?" "Oh no, the wild metaphor used tackle!" Discombobulation narrated, grabbing at his hat before the giant apple rose suddenly up and shot forwards, smashing into Luna. She was knocked flat on her back with a squawk, and then she snarled and hopped to her hooves before Discombobulation pointed and posed, declaring: "Scrivener Blooms, use thunder!" With that, Luna snapped her horn upwards, and there was a loud crackle before a blast of lightning hammered into Discombobulation. Immediately, his clothing and the enormous apple both disintegrated into ashes as he yelled in pain, flailing his arm and his prosthetic limb... and a moment later, he was left standing, covered in blackened ashes and smoldering slightly before he coughed loudly and rasped weakly: "It's super-effective... wild metaphor fainted." He toppled backwards, sending up a puff of smoke, and Luna huffed at him as Scrivener sighed and dropped his head forwards before he calmly began to gather up the apples, asking dryly: "Not that we're not glad to see you, Bob, but... where's the method to your madness this time? We're kind of busy." "Just a feeling, that's all." Discombobulation sat up, becoming more serious as he brushed char and ash from his body, and Luna and Scrivener both frowned before the Draconequus smiled wryly, saying quietly: "Because you see, I can't fight this feeling anymore, I've forgotten what I started fighting for... but the one thing I can guarantee is that I don't feel like making love. Rather, I feel like something is going to... get down tonight. Get down, get down, get down, get down, get down tonight baby." He paused as Luna and Scrivener both frowned at him nervously, and then he cocked his head curiously, saying thoughtfully: "Lots of music metaphors today. Wonder if that's a sign?" Category:Transcript Category:Story